Friday, 23 September 2016

In Greek mythology, Perieres was described as the son of Aeolus, king of Thessaly and Enarete, and was the king of Messene. In some version, Perieres was described a son of Cynortas.

Perieres

Perieres was husband of Gorgophone, daughter of the Perseus and Andromeda. By Gorgophone, Perieres become father of Tyndareos and Icarius. In rare version Oebalus was also described as the son of Perieres. After the death of Perieres, Gorgophone married Oebalus, and became the first widow in Greece that married a second husband.Index

Sunday, 4 September 2016

In Greek mythology, Salmoneus was describe as the king of Elis and founded the city of Salmone in Pisatis. Salmoneus was the son of Aeolus (king of Thessaly) and Enarete, and brother of Athamas, Sisyphus, Cretheus, Perieres, Deioneus, Canace, Alcyone, and Perimede. Salmoneus was first married to Alcidice and afterwards to Sidero, by the former wife he was the father of Tyro. He originally lived in Thessaly, but emigrated to Elis, where he built the town of Salmone.

Salmoneus and his brother Sisyphus hated each other. Sisyphus found out from an oracle that if he married Tyro, she would bear him children who would kill Salmoneus. At first, Tyro submitted to Sisyphus, married him, and bore him a son. When Tyro found out what the child would do to Salmoneus, she killed the boy. It was soon after this that Tyro lay with Poseidon and bore him Pelias and Neleus. Salmoneus went so far in his presumption and arrogance, that he deemed himself equal to Zeus, and ordered sacrifices to be offered to himself. He even imitated the thunder and lightning of Zeus, but the father of the gods killed the presumptuous man with his thunderbolt, destroyed his town, and punished him in the lower world. Index

Tuesday, 23 August 2016

In Greek mythology, Deucalion was described as the son of Prometheus and either Clymene, Hesione or Pronoia. Deucalion married Pyrrha, the daughter of Epimetheus and Pandora, the first mortal born .

Deucalion with his wife Pyrrha......

According to the Greek legend, Zeus decided to end the Bronze Age, because Lycaon, king of Arcadia, sacrificed a human baby on the altar of Zeus. In some versions, Zeus visited Arcadia while being transformed as a pheasant, in order to test king Lycaon . King Lycaon slaughtered a male child, and with the help of his sons mixed Zeus food with the sacrifices. Zeus in disgust killed Lycaon and his sons, but because of their impiety, Zeus decided to destroy the men of the Bronze Age. In other version, Lycaon killed his son Nyctimus and mixed his body parts in the food which he serve Zeus. Zeus in anger, unleashed a deluge, so that the rivers ran in torrents and the sea flooded the coastal plain, engulfed the foothills with spray, and washed everything clean.

The flood in the age of Deucalion (Bronze age)

Prometheus, father of Deucalion, had foreseen what was about to happen, so he warned his son to create an ark, in which he and his wife could find refuge. In the ark, Deucalion and Pyrrha survived the flood and were the only two people that survived. When the waters receded, the ark landed on Mount Parnassus, which was the only spot that was not destroyed by the waters. Deucalion and Pyrrha had to repopulate the earth. So, Deucalion asked an oracle of the goddess Themis for advice, who told him to throw the bones of his mother behind his shoulder. Deucalion and Pyrrha believed that by "mother", the oracle meant Mother Gaea, and by "bones", it meant rocks. Deucalion and Pyrrha took some rocks and threw them behind their shoulder; as soon as the rocks touched the ground, they started changing shape and formed humans. The rocks Deucalion had thrown became men, while those thrown by Pyrrha became women.

Saturday, 6 August 2016

In Greek mythology, Autonoe was described as the daughter of Cadmus, founder of Thebes, and Harmonia. Autonoe was the wife of Aristaeus and mother of Actaeon and in some version also of Macris.

Autonoe and her sisters were driven into a bacchic frenzy by the god Dionysus (her nephew) when Pentheus, the king of Thebes, refused to allow his worship in the city. When Pentheus came to spy on their revels, Agave, the mother of Pentheus and Autonoe's sister, spotted him in a tree. They tore him to pieces.Actaeon, the son of Autonoe, was eaten by his own hounds as punishment for glimpsing goddess Artemis naked. Autonoe, being distressed, left Thebes to go to Ereneia, a village of the Megarians, where she died.

Friday, 5 August 2016

In Greek mythology, Pentheus was described as the king of Thebes. He was the son of Echion (one of the five Spartoi) and Agave (daughter of Cadmus and Harmonia). In some version, Pentheus had a son named Menoeceus, who became the father of Creon and Jocasta. When Cadmus decided to step off the throne of the Thebes due to old age, he gave the reign to his grandson Pentheus.

Dionysus came to Thebes after a long journey in Asian countries in the form of a mortal man, wishing to introduce his rites in the city where his mother Semele had died stricken by thunder because of Hera's wrath. And he also chose Thebes, as the first city in Hellas to know the vine and its rites because Semele's sisters, out of jealousy, denied that he was the son of Zeus. For they declared that Semele had sexual relation with a mortal man, and that Cadmus, in order to save his daughter's reputation, invented the story of Zeus' love for her, adding that because of that unholy lie Zeus had killed her. So, in order to punish the intriguers and show them what it meant not to be initiated in the Bacchic rites, Dionysus came to the city, and made the Theban women leave their houses in frenzy, having them dwell in the Mount Cithaeron , out of their wits, and wearing the outfits of his mysteries. And he decided that this mad state of affairs should proceed until they acknowledged that Semele had borne a son to Zeus. Pentheus banned the worship of the god Dionysus, driving him away from all sacrifices, and making no mention of him in his prayers. Pentheus captured Dionysus, and thinking he was simply a follower of the cult, imprisoned him; however, the chains would not bind the god and the cell gate would not close. Even the seer Tiresias had warned Pentheus long before....."Unless you worship Dionysus as is his due, you will be torn into a thousand pieces and scattered everywhere …"

Dionysus managed to convince Pentheus to dress as a woman and go to Cithaeron, in order to see the frenzied women engage in sexual activities. He climbed on a tree to see better, but in their madness, the women thought he was a wild animal. They pulled him off the tree and tore him apart limb from limb. The first to actually attack Pentheus was his mother, who only realised what had happened once she had returned to the city. After Pentheus's death, Cadmus, along with his wife Harmonia and their daughter Agave, left Thebes, and having come to Illyria, he took the throne from King Lycotherses, whom Agave killed, and reigned there until the end of his life.Index

Tuesday, 2 August 2016

In Greek mythology, Agave was described as the daughter of Cadmus and Harmonia and sister of Autonoe, Ino, Semele and Polydorus. Agave married Echion, one of the five Spartoi, and was the mother of Pentheus, a king of Thebes. She also had a daughter, Epirus. (Spartoi were a mythical people who sprang up from the dragon's teeth sown by Cadmus, and were believed to be the ancestors of the Theban nobility.)

Agave

Agave was a follower of Dionysus (Maenad). Cadmus, the king of Thebes, abdicated due to his old age in favor of his grandson Pentheus. One of the first things the new king did was to ban the worship of the god Dionysus. Dionysus, Pentheus' cousin, lured Pentheus to the woods—Pentheus wanted to see what he thought were the sexual activities of the women—where the Maenads (followers of Dionysus) tore him apart and his corpse was mutilated by his own mother, Agave. Thinking that she and the other women had just killed a lion. Dionysus had driven them mad. Agave carried her son's head on a stick back to Thebes, only realizing the truth when confronted by her father, Cadmus.

Agave with other women (Maenads) killing Pentheus

This murder also served as Dionysus' vengeance on Agave (and her sisters Ino and Autonoe). Semele, during her pregnancy with Dionysus, was destroyed by the sight of the splendor of Zeus. Her sisters spread the report that she had only endeavored to conceal unmarried sex with a mortal man, by pretending that Zeus was the father of her child, and said that her destruction was a just punishment for her falsehood. This calumny was afterwards most severely avenged upon Agave. Agave was exiled from Thebes and fled to Illyria to marry King Lycotherses, and then killed him in order to gain the city for her father Cadmus.Index

In Greek mythology, Cadmus was described as the founder and first king of Thebes. Cadmus was the son of King Agenor and Queen Telephassa of the Phoenician city of Tyre, and brother of Phoenix, Thasus, Cilix and Europa. It was believed that he was the person who introduced the Phoenician alphabet to the Greeks, who then adapted it into their own.

Cadmus

After Europa had been carried off by Zeus from the shores of Phoenicia, devastated at the news of his daughter's mysterious disappearance. King Agenor entrusted his four sons, Cadmus, Phoenix, Cilix and Thasus, with the mission to find Europa, charging them never to return without his beloved daughter. The queen Telephassa also accompanied her sons. They searched far and wide for Europa without getting any clue for her disappearance. Unable to find Europa, Europa's brothers Phoenix, Cilix and Thasus gave up the search for their sister and settled in regions founding cities that were named after them: Phoenix, Cilicia, in Asia Minor, and, Thassos, on a small island of the eastern Aegean.

Abduction of Europa by god Zeus in form of white bull...

Cadmus along with his mother settled in Thrace where Telephassa soon died of grief at the loss of her daughter. After performing the last rites to his mother, Cadmus went on a pilgrimage to the oracle of Delphi to ask for his sister. Cadmus was ordered by oracle of Delphi, to give up his quest and follow a special cow, with a half moon on her flank, which would meet him, and to build a town on the spot where she should lie down exhausted. The cow was given to Cadmus by Pelagon, King of Phocis, and it guided him to Boeotia. Having found the place where he was to build a new city, Cadmus decided to sacrifice the cow to goddess Athena. For that purpose, he sent his companions to look for pure water to do the sacrifice. They found the purest water in a lovely spring. As they were filling their vessels with water, a fierce serpent-like dragon, guardian of the spring, emerged from a nearby cave. Cadmus's companions were slain by the spring's guardian water-dragon, which was in turn destroyed by Cadmus.

Cudmus killing water-dragon

Cadmus was then instructed by goddess Athena to sow the dragon's teeth in the ground, from which there sprang a race of fierce armed men, called the Spartoi ("sown"). By throwing a stone among them, Cadmus caused them to fall upon one another until only five survived, who assisted him to build the Cadmeia or citadel of Thebes, and became the founders of the noblest families of that city.

Cadmus sowing dragon's teeth

The dragon had been sacred to Ares,or in other version was described as the son of god Ares, so the god punished the Cadmus with servitude for a period of eight years, after which Ares not only forgave Cadmus but also gave him the hand of his daughter, Harmonia, in marriage. The wedding was solemnly celebrated in Cadmea in the presence of all gods. Cadmus gave his lovely bride a golden necklace made by god Hephaestus as a wedding present. This necklace, commonly referred to as the Necklace of Harmonia, brought misfortune to all who possessed it. Harmonia bore Cadmus five children: Autonoe, Ino, Semele, Agave and Polydorus. Semele later became the mother of Dionysus, the god of wine. However, the curse of the necklace was still clinging over Cadmus and his family. His family members had troubles and were leading a miserable life. Finally, when civil strife assailed the city he founded, Cadmus abdicated his throne and, along with his wife, settled in the land of the Enchelians, to the north of modern Epirus area, who made him their king. The Enchelians were engaged in a war with a neighbouring tribe that time, but with Cadmus as their leader, they managed to win. Cadmus founded the city of Lychnidos and Bouthoe. Cadmus had another son while he was there whom he called Illyria. However, the misfortunes and tragedies in his family continued to trouble him profoundly. Nevertheless, Cadmus was deeply troubled by the ill-fortune which clung to him as a result of his having killed the sacred dragon, and one day he remarked that if the gods were so enamoured of the life of a serpent, he might as well wish that life for himself. Immediately he began to grow scales and change in form. Harmonia, seeing the transformation, thereupon begged the gods to share her husband's fate, which they granted.

Cadmus and Harmonia

In another version, the bodies of Cadmus and his wife were changed after their deaths; the serpents watched their tomb while their souls were translated to the fields. In some versions, Cadmus is given a prophecy by Dionysus whereby both he and his wife will be turned into snakes for a period before eventually being brought to live among the blest.Index

Tuesday, 26 July 2016

In Greek mythology, Lyssa was described as the personification of mad rage and frenzy, as well as rabies in animals. Lyssa was closely linked to the spirits of insanity called Maniae. In some versions, Lyssa was described as the daughter of goddess Nyx (night), the emerged from the blood of the god Uranus, after her was castrated by his son Cronus. (Castration of Uranus) In other version, Lyssa was described as the daughter of Aether and Gaea.

Lyssa

According to Greek legend, Goddess Hera asked Lyssa to overpower Hercules with madness. Lyssa was not fond of visiting the homes of men, nor use her powers to turn friends against each other. Lyssa counsels Iris, who wishes to carry out Hera's command, against targeting Hercules but, after failing to persuade, bows to the orders of the superior goddess and sends him into a mad rage that causes him to murder his wife (Megara) and children.

According to Greek mythology, While hunting in the woods with his dogs, hunter Actaeoncame across the goddess Artemis, who was bathing naked in a lake. Artemis spotted him and, enraged, she turned him into a stag. Lyssa then inflicted rabies on his dogs and tore him apart.

In some version, Lyssa appears as an agent ofDionysussent to drive the daughters of Minyas mad, who in turn dismember Pentheus.